In order to fill a food pot with this type of food product, the known devices comprise a plurality of food product-dispensing nozzles which are arranged above the pots and in which each nozzle is intended to fill one pot.
For example, for packaging a set of pots in two rows of four pots each, the filling device comprises eight nozzles arranged in two rows of four nozzles.
The nozzles are all mounted on a common plate connected to means capable of moving said plate.
These means for removing the plate are configured to allow a vertical translational movement of the plate in order to lower or raise all of the nozzles above the pots.
These means for moving the plate are also configured to allow a rotational movement of the plate so that all of the nozzles rotate about the axis of translation of the plate.
The existing devices operate as follows.
In order to fill the pots, the nozzles mounted on the plate are first brought within the pots. The position adopted is then a bottom position.
Then, the filling operation itself is carried out as the plate, and therefore all of the nozzles, rises from the bottom position to a top position known as the release position.
The opening of the nozzles is controlled from the bottom position and throughout the filling in order to allow the product to be metered.
In the top release position, and sometimes a bit before, the closing of the nozzles is controlled, for example by valves which shut off the supply of the nozzles, and the device can no longer fill the pot.
Another set of pots can then be brought up, for example packaged in two rows of four pots, in order to begin the preceding steps again.
Moreover, by combining the translational and rotational movements of the plate, the nozzles are able to carry out a filling in the form of a twirl, for example of a whipped cream-type food product for a café liégeois ice cream.
Indeed, this merely requires the plate to be raised, during the phase for filling the pot, along its axis of translation while at the same time imparting thereto a rotational movement about this axis.
The known devices based on this principle have variant embodiments.
For example, certain devices are equipped with nozzles each having a single supply channel. These devices therefore fill a pot with a single food product.
Other, more sophisticated devices are equipped with nozzles each comprising two independent channels. Each of these channels can be supplied with a different product in such a way that it is possible to fill a pot with two different food products.
However, whatever the variants proposed, the known devices are all based on the use of a plate on which all of the nozzles are mounted, to which plate translational movements are directly imparted, optionally combined with rotational movements.
These devices lead to a plurality of drawbacks.
That is to say, the plate comprising all of the nozzles is a heavy element displaying considerable inertia that does not allow precise management of the translational and above all rotational movements that have to be imparted to the nozzles.
Moreover, in so far as an identical movement is applied to all of the nozzles via the plate, it is not possible to fill pots within the same set of pots with different products. For example, in order to make a café liégeois ice cream, the twirl shape which is produced with the product is the same for all the pots.
Furthermore, for devices equipped with nozzles having a single channel, it is necessary to multiply the nozzles and/or the filling stations in order to fill a pot with various products. For example, for café liégeois ice cream, it is necessary to provide a first station for filling the cream coffee, then a second station specifically for filling the twirl-shaped whipped cream.
This greatly lengthens the production time, and therefore increases costs, and makes the device bulkier. Moreover, there are fewer possibilities for mixing products in the pot, given the sequence of filling stations.
There are devices equipped with nozzles each comprising two independent parallel channels which can be supplied simultaneously. However, these devices are very bulky, making them in some cases difficult to reconcile with the width of a pot.